Partners for Life
by Magooke
Summary: Cortana thinks it is time to give John a partner, him doing solo assignments while effective could be more effective if he were to have someone work with him. Johanna just lost her home and enlists in the SPARTAN program. John/OC JohnxOC Master Chief/OC Master Chief x girl . R&R!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Usually the summer day would be unbearably hot; one look in the horizon and the heat could be seen wavering like a sea. The hot pavement created illusions that there were puddles on the ground, but only upon closer inspection would it show that it was only a trick from the heat. Usually about this time, everyone would be groaning and complaining about the heat and how it was impossible to cool down in the high ninety degree heat. But not on this day, at least not the teenagers.

Crowing in excitement, a group of kids walked down the street, dressed in green and gold cap and gowns. Some heavily decorated with chords to signify they graduated with honors, a certain GPA, were apart of certain clubs, and some with just a single chord.

"We're finished baby," one gentleman cheered as he jumped on a bench and banged the head of another male before hoping off once more, chuckling as he was swatted at.

"And even Baby made it, look how decorated she is too," another boy pointed out, pinching the cheeks of the obviously youngest in their group.

The youngest hit the boy away that started to play with all of her tassels as she grinned at the mockery, as she walked with her friends back home. The heat was causing all of them to sweat, creating not only disgusting body odor, but also making their hair damp around their foreheads and small patches of sweat on their back, arms, and other embarrassing places. But by their grins they couldn't have spared any sort of care for their appearance. The group was speaking excitedly about a party that they should throw when a shadow casted over them, this made them pause in their strides as they looked up…

A large ship had passed over the sun, the five of us stared; open mouthed in pure awe and wonder at the sheer size of the ship that had provided shade. On closer inspection on the monstrous, purple ship…they realized that no ship from the Military would look like that. Or be even close to that size, at least none that they knew of. Ships were starting to be released from the larger one, of course they were smaller but that didn't make them any less intimidating.

"It's the Covenant," one breathed out, he had a green tassel across his neck, he had been in the Army JROTC program at our school. Looking to us, he ordered, "We have to get out of here, somewhere we can be safe until the Military can get us off planet."

Everyone headed one way...but Baby didn't follow, she shot off in another direction. Her friends shouted at her, telling her not to go, but she was gone. She wasn't that great of a runner, Baby couldn't run too fast but she made it down the street and was about to turn a corner when she saw small aliens waddling off of a ship, she ran into the front yard of a house and started hopping fences to get to her own home. She was breathing heavily, but adrenaline was pumping through her veins and so she didn't seem to notice the stitch in her side or how sore her legs were as she ran up to a two story house, her home.

Opening the door to the back, she was about to bolt through the kitchen when the sight of her parents had her frozen in fear. Her father was on the floor with a bleeding chest, his matcing brown eyes were staring right through her as his head had landed so that his head was facing her. Her mother with her matching black hair was on the table, face down…a hole in her skull. Opening her mouth to scream, she suddenly heard a barking noise and hid in the hallway, putting a hand over her mouth to quiet herself. She heard their heavy footsteps in the kitchen, but she mimicked their's so she was closest to the stairway and the wall of the kitchen and staircase separated them. Carefully she walked up the stairs, taking one step at a time and being as quiet as possible-

**Creak.** The alien gave a bark and Baby shot up the stairs, running into her sibling's room and slamming the door shut and locked it, though Baby knew it would do little against a 6 foot, heavily armored alien. It might buy them a little bit of time as she quickly scanned the room, luckily her younger brother Cody was clutching onto their baby sister, Maria.

"Come on Cody," Baby whispered as she shoved open the window, there was a bang on the door where the alien probably slammed into it, he was making clicking and barking noises, the both of us flinched at the bang and Baby quickly took Maria from Cody. "Jump, land in the bushes, okay? Relax your body." Cody leaped out, landing in the bushes he looked up at his older sister expectantly, just as the door banged open, Baby leaped as well, clutching onto Maria but relaxing the rest of her body. Grabbing her brother, Baby didn't look back as she shot from the side of the house and towards the front yard, tugging her brother along as she ran.

"Johanna! Jo, he-" Baby responded, revealing her true name to be Johanna as she turned to see who it was, her next door neighbor, Maria, was being chased by one of the taller aliens were chasing her. She watched as she was shot in the back and fell into her front lawn, the alien looked towards her running, aimed his weapon and-

Gunfire and we came to a halt immediately as soldiers swarmed around us, shoving us towards some sort of plane. We watched as they shot at the alien, keeping him at bay but only seeming to make him more angry as we were loaded into the ship, more citizens were loaded as well as quickly as they were. Finally, the ship took off and Cody sat, clinging to his older, obviously scared and confused as he looked at all the other families…or at least people that had lived on their block.

_Reach was supposed to be safe._

Everyone looked the same, it had been two days since the invasion of Reach and I still wasn't used to being in a Military installation. Everyone dressed the same, all in a freshly pressed, dark, green suit of some kind. Everyone's hair pulled back and out of the way, everyone speaking in low, monotones so that their conversation wouldn't be overheard by others or possibly the wrong people. And everyone was walking at a very brisk pace, as though they had somewhere that they needed to be, everyone had a purpose. Johanna looked quite out of place as she walked at a leisure pace towards Social Services in hopes of good news.

"I don't have good news," the woman said as though to spite Johanna who sat in a chair before a metal desk, "Since you have graduated we can't send you anywhere, you're an adult. But your siblings, we can put up for adoption-"

"No, you can't send them to Earth? We have an Aunt there," Johanna persisted with the lady.

"I'm sorry Ms. Cole, but we're doing all that we can for you and your family," the woman explained, "there's a reason why a trip to Earth is so expensive, it is not only a long travels away, but it also takes us a while to get there because we are trying to throw off any Covenant that might be tracking us. The only persons who could pay for something like that are…"

"Well? Are who," Johanna demanded, hating how she trailed off as though it was obvious. It wasn't to her, and being in this office almost every day had her pulling out her hair. Johanna hated worrying about money, never had she had to do so until this point and time, and she was finding being a grown-up was very stressful and tiring.

"Those associated with the government," she stated carefully.

Thinking for a long moment, Johanna wondered if she should talk to her friend, Crossgrove, who was in the JROTC. Did he even make it off Reach? She was yet to see any of her friends, granted the space port was rather large, making it feel more like a planet itself than a floating piece of metal in space with its own gravity. "So what if I enlisted, what then," I asked.

"If you took in your siblings as Dependents, they could be sent anywhere you really wanted them to, ma'am. Within reason of course," she said with a sort of smile as though that was funny.

Johanna didn't smile as she pushed her black locks back and out of her face as she frowned in thought.

"Where do I sign up?"

**So just the prologue, but please leave a review and there shall be more!**


	2. Chapter 1: Sweet Child O' Mine

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Halo or any of the franchises, all belongs to Microsoft, Bungie, and whoever else is involved with making something that Epic.

**Thank you SO much to ****Tangolikeoak**** and**** LIWNTGuest!****! Both of their reviews meant a lot to me and I hope that either of them are reading this and enjoy the take I'm going with for this thread. Leave a review and I'll give a shout out!**

**Chapter One:** Sweet Child O' Mine

Three Years Later

_Johanna, Johanna, Johanna, Joey, Baby, my name is Johanna. My name isS-007- no wait, its Johanna, Johanna-_ Brown orbs suddenly snapped open at the twittering of an alarm. Sitting up on her cot, she looked over to her bunkmate, Johanna couldn't remember her name, but she remembered her own number S003. After the fall of Reach, it appeared that Johanna wasn't the only one that wanted to answer the call. She was the oldest out of everyone, already nineteen years old. The doctors were worried that it was too late for Johanna that she was getting too old and her body was going to stop maturing and the procedure for the augmentation would be a waste on a body like her's and more than likely do more harm than good. But Johanna brushed away their concern.

Both girls rose from their beds and dressed in black PT outfits, neither saying much to the other as neither were much of morning people anyways. Johanna pulled her black hair back into a high ponytail, S003 did the same, though her hair was only shoulder width so it barely made a pony tail, and then the two headed outside of the installation to begin their morning run.

The two stretched as they waited for the rest of their group to arrive, there was four males and four females total. S001 looked to be only fifteen, she had looked rather scrawny in the beginning, but three years of training and her body was like the rest of theirs, lean with muscle and her eyes had dark circles like the rest. S002 also looked rather young, he might have been fourteen; he was the fastest out of the entire group. S003 was Johanna's bunkmate and looked to be sixteen. S004 was a nerd, as Johanna put it, she probably wouldn't have ever spoken to him in school. S005 was another girl, she too looked sixteen and looked rather plain with brown hair and green eyes, nothing was too special about her; Johanna knew she could camouflage herself very well though in any environment. S006 looked to have been some sort of hunter himself before he joined the Military; he knew how to track anything that could move. Then there was Johanna, S007, everyone was surprised to learn that she was the strongest. She had the body for it, large arms, her body layered with lean muscle, she was simply tiny though and looked more so with her broad shoulders. She was the shortest out of everyone, only standing at 64 inches where everyone averaged 70 inches or better. The muscle was lean so she didn't look like some huge body builder, but everyone was surprised that she could bench her own weight and more so.

Then there was S008. He was the leader of their group, their instructor usually put them in group situations and tried to push each of them to be a leader instead of always looking to S008 for guidance, but he was just a natural born leader. He was probably about 17, so almost as old as Johanna. He knew everyone's strengths and weaknesses and he played to everyone's strengths to get assignments done. The instructors finally gave up on trying to get everyone to lead as they simply allowed S008 to lead. As he arrived, everyone in their group looked up to him as he was the tallest as he stretched a bit as well.

"Alright, ten mile run like every morning," and with that he would jog off, quickly followed by the rest like ducklings as they ran behind each other in a row. Johanna always followed last, she was the slowest and everyone knew it, and so she just ran in the back and tried to keep up, while trying to stay out of everyone's way. For everyone else they would just make an hour in their run, but Johanna took five whole extra minutes to complete her run. She ended, placing her hands on her knees tiredly as she looked to her comrades who by that time had already caught their own breath and were waiting for Johanna to finish. After our run, we paired up in groups of two, locking our legs together and did sit ups and afterwards we did push-ups on S008's count.

After our morning routine, the instillation was finally starting to stir with movement from other soldiers. The group entered the building once more and received physical examinations, the examinations had not been a daily thing until a week ago. Johanna was more careful now not to injure herself because any injury and she would get kicked out of the program, every person needed to be completely healthy when the augmentation process began. Immediately the group joined the line in the mess hall, Johanna was careful not to fill up her plate too much (she learned that during the first week when S006 had ate too much and threw up on the ten mile run); all the soldiers looked at the group with a sort of contempt towards them, none of them either did anything wrong, but it was the fact of how specially treated they were within the Military that annoyed most soldiers. The group sat down in the back together as one and ate quietly amongst one another, enjoying the bit of peace and relaxation they received when eating. They had just finished when S008 called them to attention, everyone rose immediately without a second thought or even questioning their leader.

"At ease and please resume seated," everyone did, but no longer slouched and relaxed, they were all on edge, seated upright and their heads examining the one that had made them go to attention; a man in the MJOLNIR armor that the group had learned about because of their AI Deja 2; Johanna didn't recognize him, but by the points and stares by all the other soldiers that occupied the mess hall, he was well known. He spoke in a deep gravelly voice, one that could gain a crowd's attention without rising in volume whatsoever, "Dr. Halsey asked me to be here to put you through your last challenge as a team, it was only because of a friendship with her that I took this position. I've been pulled from duty just for this, don't disappointment."

"Sir, yes, sir," the group said in unison and continued to be tense until he left the mess hall completely, Johanna stared after where he had gone as the rest of the group immediately went into hushed whispers.

"Who was that guy," Johanna's question was asked softly, but it cut through everyone's conversation like a butcher's knife slicing through a thick slab of meet, halting all conversation entirely.

It'd be S004 that spoke up with a slight scoff, "Seriously? You've never heard of Master Chief? _The_ Master Chief? He's only been a freakin' war hero twice now and is the only Spartan to survive Reach!"

Johanna was honestly concerned for S004, she thought he might have an aneurism, apparently she wasn't the only one who thought so as S008 gave him a pat on the shoulder before turning to Johanna and speaking, "S004 is right, but him being here also means that we must be close to finishing," he stated simply.

And with that hanging over their heads, they left the mess hall, each properly depositing their trays into a ben after clearing them off and headed outside. Everyone joined in a quiet stretch between one another Johanna couldn't help but feel as though they were being watched as they moved with a purpose towards the obstacle course, and there stood the Master Chief himself. He was giving them all a rather hard look as they approached him with a bit of caution, Johanna wondered why he was still wearing the armor…and why a helmet? She supposed that he was simply comfortable in the armor after a while and simply rarely took it off. Did he sleep in it too? The thought made her want to snicker and it took every fiber in her being to continue to have a neutral face as he spoke, gaining everyone's attention once more.

"Today is a test, I won't tell you what I'm looking for, but I will tell you that there isn't a winner. But there certainly is a loser," he said, and for some reason Johanna felt as though his gaze immediately went to her, "Make it through the course."

The group got in their line once more, Johanna and S008 at the end of each of their lines as they gave each teammate a ten second head start. Johanna felt as though she had to prove that she wasn't the weak link in the group, she kept her knees high as she raced through the tires and ran towards the monkey bars. She was able to cross with ease, she was the strongest out of the girls, the only one stronger than her out of the entire group was S008. She made it to the inclining wall and climbed it with ease, her upper body doing most of the work until she rolled over it and landed on her feet like a cat. Johanna then slid onto her stomach and immediately started climbing with her head bowed and keeping herself low as to not knock into the wires above herself. Through the obstacle course she went, and it wasn't until each team (girls versus boys) reached the rope climb that Johanna shined the best. She pulled herself upwards, not even using her feet as she raced against S008. They were neck and neck, both grinning as they heaved themselves up at the challenge that was presented for them.

DING DING DING!

Johanna climbed down, the victor as her teammate's clapped her on her broad shoulders excitedly before everyone returned to the Master Chief. Johanna tried not to have a cocky smirk on her face as she looked to the man who she believed to have looked down on her; and she had been right, John had seen them run and had watched how long it had taken her to run it, five minutes longer than the rest of her fellow teammates. He honestly hadn't expected too much from her going through the obstacle course, and just because she won it didn't mean that she still wasn't the weak link.

This continued on, the Master Chief putting them through every test that he could think of, holding their breath under water, doing exercises with a large log, and the entire group would agree that today was one of their hardest days they've had in a long time. But not once did anyone complain, they pushed through any and ever challenge he put them through, a couple times he put them through team skills, building some sort of contraption that could carry two barrels of water across a ten mile road. S008 kept them on time and focused, S004 created the contraption, and everyone else did the heavy lifting. And there was a common theme that annoyed John the most, there was a common theme with S007, Johanna, she couldn't think for herself. She took orders and obeyed commands, but not once did he hear her give a command to her teammates, she'd give a suggestion but it was always a question, and she always looked to S008, like many did. It wasn't hard for John to pick up that S008 was the leader of the group.

At the end of the day, he had them do a ten mile run; everyone was tired and exhausted from the training they had to endure, but none complained and instead immediately went on a run. He had explained that the person that came in last place would be the one to have 'failed' the group and watched as the group ran around the track, that way he could see their progression. S008 was running a lot slower than he normally did, at least compare to how fast he had ran this morning. He was constantly keeping behind S007…Johanna seemed to notice this as well as she continued to glance back at him curiously as she pushed herself to keep running to finish up the ten mile run.

_Wait, 8 is trying to take _my_ place; he's trying to lose on purpose!_ Annoyance filled her as she was finishing her last lap, the 'end' in sight, she could hear 8 behind her as well and she suddenly came to a halt, grabbing him by his arm she literally _tossed_ the leader of the group across the line, she jogged to the end and put her hands on her knees, attempting to catch her breath.

"Get a good nights rest, you'll receive your punishment tomorrow," John stated simply, not at all impressed by either before he turned and headed back inside.

Waiting until John was gone, Johanna had just straightened up when S008 tackled her to the ground, the air she just got into her lungs was suddenly knocked out of her with a loud 'oof'. The group responded immediately, a bit shocked at how their leader was responding as he brought back a fist to hit her, but the group yanked him off as Johanna got back up, glaring at him.

"What's your problem," she demanded, annoyed.

"My problem is that stunt you pulled back there," he growled at her, yanking him free of the rest of the group, but keeping his distance so no one tried to get in front of him again as he spoke, "he knew you were the slowest and that's the only reason why he picked running as the last challenge! If anyone should receive a punishment it should be me for not pushing you hard enough to run faster-"

"You're not my commanding officer, it's _my_ responsibility to work on my speed, not yours," Johanna snapped back, "And if this is the consequences that I pay for being slower than the rest, so be it. But you shouldn't take the blame because of me."

S008 seemed ready to say something more, but Johanna was gone, and for once she turned her back on her leader as she moved with a purpose towards the installation. Everyone stared a bit open mouthed as she walked on, not turning back to see who followed, and it was with great reluctance that S008 dropped it and simply headed inside as well, the group following, all looking rather nervous and somewhat feeling as though they were at the dinner table and their mother said something quite nasty to their father. Dinner was just as tense between the two, the other members stole glances towards Johanna or S008, but both ignored the looks and even each other; neither too happy with the other to even enjoy each other's company. When Johanna was finished, she got up without waiting for everyone else, stormed from the mess hall, and went to bed as quickly as possible.

_He has no right,_ Johanna grumbled in her head as she walked with a quick stride towards her bedroom, head down as she moved quickly. Most soldiers heard her coming and so would quickly step out of the way as to avoid being trampled, _taking the consequences will make _me_ stronger anyways, and what gives him the right to assume responsibility over me-_ "Oof," Johanna had ran into someone, she stumbled back, rubbing her chest sorely as she looked to see who had gotten her way, she tensed, "Master Chief," she immediately went to attention and saluted him.

"Watch where you're going," John growled at her.

"Sir, yes sir. Sorry, sir," Johanna apologized immediately, without even second guessing her action. He glared at her for a long time and then suddenly stepped closer to her; nervously, Johanna debated on taking a step back from him but stood frozen, rooted to the spot she was in as John growled into her ear.

"You're the weakest link with your team, do yourself a favor get out while you still can. You want survive tomorrow," he practically promised before marching past her, Johanna didn't move until the sound of his boots disappeared, she looked behind after him, glaring.

_I'll show him. I'll show everyone._

"Mind telling me why you're so hard on her," Cortana suddenly appeared beside John, her figure just as tall as him, and almost completely lifelike if it weren't for the blue hue and the way figures continued to rain down her body.

John shot the AI a glare, "Because, it's just as I said. She's the weak one, she needs to be made aware of how much work she has set for her. She's far too submissive, all she does is take orders- wait, you're not-"

"And why not," Cortana asked, holding out her hands while keeping stride with him, walking like a normal person though John noted that her feet didn't actually touch the ground, she simply hovered, "It's just as you said, she's submissive and takes orders. Believe it or not, but S007 is perfect-"

John cut in again, "I thought it'd be someone like me! A leader-"

"Right, because you were a great, shining star when you were first in the Spartan program," smirked Cortana as she flawlessly used sarcasm, she stopped in her stride and naturally, so did John; so used to following her lead and so used to keeping up with her, "How is she any different from you anyways? The only difference between you two is that you can think for yourself, but half the time I'm giving you orders, am I not?"

"Exactly, _I_ can think for myself," John pointed out.

Cortana shook her head, "But we're not looking for someone who can be another you, now are we?"

Silence followed that statement and Cortana gave a smirk as she started to glitch away, her last statement ringing out in the empty hallway, "That's what I thought."

**That's all for now folks! Thanks for everyone that is watching this story and thanks again to the two reviews I got! They really made my day and encouraged me to keep typing, I know this chapter was a bit of a filler, but I assure you better stuff is coming; just gotta muscle through the background, ya know? PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! = )**


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